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Long form:
When this pops up on the screen, it looks like another hold from Calamarain, which should be cause for rejoicing in any case, but the truth of the matter is that it's even better:

This hold is a collaborative effort between seven excellent architects: Calamarain, Jacob, Chaco, Dischorran, BoyBlue, Jutt and agaricus5. It's organized in rough levels of difficulty, so you are faced with Jacob's and Chaco's work first, which is easier (but by no means trivial), and then you move on to Calamarain and Dischorran...and finally onto BoyBlue and Jutt. agaricus5 does have some contributions here, but you'll have to work a little harder to find those.

So now you know what it is...*how* is it? The truth is that it is excellent.

The early stuff is challenging and fun, the middle levels are more challenging and just as fun, and the final levels are tear-your-hair-out, rend-your-clothing difficult in places (particularly Jutt's offering), and a perfect capper for a wonderful hold.

I rate this hold an aggregate of about 7.5 brains -- the earlier stuff is easier than that, probably six brains, and some of the later rooms are closer to 8 brains, but 7.5 seems about right.

More importantly, I'm giving the hold a 10 for fun, something I don't do terribly often.

Josh

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"Rings and knots of joy and grief, all interlaced and locking." --William Buck

Hold of the Year and Technical Design Excellence in Concept Award Winner (2008)Advanced Concepts - I made the Goblins, Fegundos, Eyes and Potions levels
(Tutorials and Challenges involving specific DROD elements)

I'm only about halfway through the first level, but I like what I see here. So far, only Chacos' puzzles have been given my significant attention, but these puzzles are worthy of me giving more attention. Much more. His puzzles are challenging but fun enough to make me keep trying. Well done guys! Hope to see more of your holds soon!

7 brains
9 fun
33 percent H&S require

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It was going well until it exploded.~Scott Manley

For more specific comments, I'll second most of what everyone else said; there's some creative work by everyone involved here. This project was an effort for the seven architects to make simple, digestible rooms (that are by no means easy). I think we succeeded in this and successfully made a nice collaborative hold.

This gets my recommendation, and not just because I haven't published any architectural work in a while.

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Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):

I have to agree with what was posted above. Although I'm listed as the "official" author of the hold, all I did was build one level and build the basic structure. Dischorran filled in the linking-up gaps.

Go play it - it's nice and varied. Lots of different architects lead to a variation of work.

Conquered in 8:20:40... no telling how long mastery could take, though. Very good hold. The difficulty level was perfect for me. The storyline was mildly amusing as well.

I think this was my first level by Jacob, calamarain, or Jutt, excluding levels in Advanced Concepts. Chaco's level seemed easier than some of his other ones elsewhere (not less enjoyable, mind you), but that might just be a result of my changing experience level. Dischorran's level was the best level I've seen from him. As for Boyblue, his level was exactly as you would expect from him; simple, yet provably impossible (it may seem). 2E was my favorite, and I learned a little something from 1S. Jutt's level showed practical uses of tarstuff-based tricks I'd noticed but never used in the past.

I'm not sure what I'll rate it yet, since I haven't played enough of the holds out there to be able to judge the relative difficulty/quality of any single one, but rest assured that when I do the overall will be at least an 8.5.

Some rooms I genuinly liked, like Workflow 3S, some rooms that felt rather meh, like Water Containment 1S, and some rooms that really wasn't my style, like floating Centerpiece 1N. Mixed feelings all in all

Put your skills to the test and try this hold if you consider yourself all-around DROD player.
For me this is the best hold that I ever played.

____________________________Never read books you aren't sure about . . . even supposing that these bad books are very well written from a literary point of view. Let me ask you this: Would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup? ~ St. John Bosco